Judge: Va. inmate can waive death sentence appeals

By the Associated PressSeptember 19, 2011

WISE, Va. — A judge in southwest Virginia says a state prison inmate is sane enough to waive automatic appeals of two death sentences.

In Wise County, Circuit Judge John C. Kilgore ruled Monday that 41-year-old Robert Gleason is sufficiently competent to waive the appeals, clearing his way to Virginia’s death chamber, according to the Bristol Herald Courier.

Gleason has pleaded guilty to two slayings, earning him the death penalty in both cases.

One sentence was for killing inmate Harvey Watson Jr. in 2009. The other was for killing inmate Aaron Cooper in July 2010.

Gleason has said in court and in an interview with The Associated Press last year that he would kill again if he wasn’t given the death penalty for Watson’s slaying.